Reality - Version 0.1

encode_decode wrote:

I thought about this for awhile and I am tending to agree with James here, encode_decode.
You made the statement that your highest priority is your family’s survival.
That can also be taken to mean that your ongoing highest priority goal is you family’s survival.
One’s highest priority would necessarily be one’s highest goal. I think that the goal is understood in highest priority.

But, what you would appear to be saying, at least to me, is that at some point your family’s survival would might cease to be your highest priority.

There are such fine nuances within the English language that we don’t even realize at times what it is we are actually saying.
I have no doubt though that your family’s survival is your highest priority at whatever moments in time.

I hope that I have no muddied the waters here.

I really don’t understand where I am going wrong - everything is working fine in my location.

No, you have not muddied the waters.

James

I have thought about this further . . .

So “best rules” are variable?

:-k

Why does rational thought require a highest priority goal? You are saying that a person can not think logically if they do not have a goal.

encode_decode

I know that ultimate here is an adjective for you but what definition mostly speaks to what you are pointing to?

adjective

  1. last; furthest or farthest; ending a process or series:
    the ultimate point in a journey; the ultimate style in hats.

  2. maximum; decisive; conclusive:
    the ultimate authority; the ultimate weapon.

  3. highest; not subsidiary:
    ultimate goal in life.

  4. basic; fundamental; representing a limit beyond which further progress, as in investigation or analysis, is impossible:
    the ultimate particle; ultimate principles.

  5. final; total:
    the ultimate consequences; the ultimate cost of a project.

  6. not to be improved upon or surpassed; greatest; unsurpassed:
    the ultimate vacation spot; the ultimate stupidity.

noun
7. the final point; final result.

  1. a fundamental fact or principle.

  2. the best, greatest, or most extreme of its kind.

By a clear truth, do you mean only one?

I am not saying that one necessarily cannot as I do not know but is it actually possible to achieve a clear truth in life as a goal?
When it comes to truth, aren’t many more or less simply opinion, even though perhaps informed opinions?

Does truth as you have it include proven fact? I think, but do not know, that you may be referring to truth as more metaphysical.

Can there ever really be a clear truth in life since truth can change, our perspectives or subjective truths, can change, scientific knowledge can change (yes or no?

You are bringing out the big guns - did you take a proton pill?

:laughing:

Truth does not change. It is an absolute, like one’s gender (XX or XY chromosomes).

Maybe the only thing we can say with certainty is that we exist.

:-k

Non-existence is a fantasy.

Exactly.

Wow, that was too easy! :-k What are you up to? :evilfun: :laughing:

WendyDarling

I do believe we were already agreeing on existence - I suggested that the only thing we can say with certainty is that we exist - you suggested that non-existence is a fantasy. There are many aspects of existence that we already agree on WendyDarling.

I have been spending some time looking around ILP, reading many different threads and posts. I have become quite interested in the differing points of view that people have. The human mind is breathtaking when I consider the diversity of imaginings possible that it can collectively give us.

The mind reminds me of the ancient Chinese game, Go. Go has more possibilities than the number of atoms in the visible universe. That tells me that the mind has many more possibilities - if I am calculating this correctly then the mind is capable of devising more versions of reality than the total number of atoms in the visible universe.

Staggering - and that is just the versions of reality . . . Now I am contemplating whether non-reality is also fantasy . . .

That is what I have been up to on ILP.

Otherwise I have been digging deeper into the complexities of emotions and logic - fun stuff . . . :laughing:

That was of course prior to responding to you.

:smiley:

How about you? What are you up to? :evilfun: :laughing:

But then, what does it mean “to exist”?

James

I think that what it means to exist, is to have objective reality, to occur, to be affected by the surrounding existence and to affect the surrounding existence.

At a more abstract level: To consume and be consumed. Your constituents are permanent.

My head is pounding - so slap me silly if you have to, and correct me if I am mistaken.

Non-existence is but a shallow concept . . .

In which case, isn’t it also certainly true that something else exists besides us, “surrounding us”?
That makes two. :sunglasses:

James

Part of what I said previously is summed up in your signature:

The Real God ≡ The reason/cause for the Universe being what it is = “The situation cannot be what it is and also remain as it is”.

An unchanging situation is a fantasy.

Yes it is certain that something else exists besides us - yet another truth. What it is that we are a part of, surrounds us and also exists - to put it simply.

To neatly summarize:

  1. The Real God ≡ The reason/cause for the Universe being what it is . . .
    . . . “The situation cannot be what it is and also remain as it is”.
  2. It is a certainty that we exist.
  3. To exist is to be affected by the surrounding existence and to affect the surrounding existence.
  4. What it is that we are a part of, surrounds us and also exists . . .
    . . . “We are inseparable from that which surrounds us”.
    I believe that to say that we can be separate from that which surrounds us is yet another shallow concept.

What I have learnt from you among other things is that infinite homogeneity cannot exist - each point in space has the potential to affect - anything without physical affect cannot physically exist. Hopefully I got those three things right.

I am happy enough with my answer to hit the submit button. I am not quite certain if it is the answer to your question though.

The number of things that can be said with certainty is endless. :sunglasses:

… the exact opposite of common rhetoric.

I disagree if a constant is unchanging (pi or the speed of light), but I would also add that the unchanging situation that exists, exists among other unchanging situations, so variety (or the appearance of change) is found in the multiple of situations recognized as a whole. Is the path of a charged electron constant?

James

I already believe:

That would be the meaning of: My ultimate goal is a clear truth in life - that could take some time to achieve.

The list of four in my previous post is far from complete - however I do not think it is a list that can be completed.

To obtain a clear truth in life, is not necessarily, to obtain the complete truth. Truth is endless.

WendyDarling

It makes sense what you are saying because a situation is a set of circumstances in which one finds oneself . . .

. . . and includes the location and surroundings of a place.

You appear to be speaking of a snapshot of reality - like a photo - but I believe you are thinking on a deeper level than a simple photograph. The situation cannot be what it is and also remain as it is - there is a special place for constants - as you say the unchanging situation that exists, exists among other unchanging situations - to which I would reply the appearance of change is like a video - it occurs at x frames per second - and is found in the multiple of situations - one after the other - but a past situation - one singular situation cannot be changed and has fallen into the register of totality to become a mere fantasy - a memory - not to be retrieved nor changed, except through the residue of a perception - a perceived history.

Truth however exists in the here and now - and each frame containing truth also falls into the register of totality.

We are the infinite communicating with the infinite and the medium that we use to communicate is temporary.

As soon as I hit the submit button my written words do not suffice because they have become my past by the time you perceive them . . .
. . . that is: they have fallen into the register of my totality.

:-k